Fed expert sees biothreat from terrorists, accidents

Veterinarian speaks at UGA

Most domestic outbreaks of foreign animal disease are accidental, but bioterrorism is a growing threat, a U.S. Department of Agriculture expert said Thursday.

There's strong evidence that both homegrown and overseas terrorists have at least considered unleashing a virus like the highly-contagious foot-and-mouth on the U.S. food supply, USDA foreign animal disease diagnostic veterinarian Ed Arza told a small group of University of Georgia students and professors.

"There are a lot of people who want to do us harm who are looking at this as a way to do us harm," Arza said.

But most incidents of a foreign disease infecting U.S livestock stem from someone unknowingly bringing an infected animal into the country.

So far, "bioterrorism has been the exception rather than the rule," he said.

Terrorism and animal disease epidemics are undoubtedly on many Athens residents' minds as they wait for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to decide whether to build the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Athens and remember the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Many residents have wondered what would happen if a virus escaped from the NBAF or one of the many existing research labs in Athens.

If it was a minor outbreak, as most are, local and state officials could easily handle it, Arza said.

If a pathogen spread nationwide, though, as foot-and-mouth did in Great Britain in 2001, it would take 100,000 to 300,000 responders to quell, including 5,000 to 15,000 veterinarians, as well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Guard and private contractors, he said.

And although only very minor outbreaks have ever hit Georgia - the USDA tests more than 300,000 chickens per year - those techniques will be needed one day, he said.

"We know that foreign animal disease outbreaks are going to happen," he said. "They are inevitable."

And they can come from surprising places. Arza said he helped contain an outbreak of Exotic Newcastle Disease stemming from chickens raised for cockfighting by Hispanic Los Angeles residents.

The 2002 outbreak lasted more than six months and threatened millions of poultry. At its peak, chickens, turkeys and game fowl were quarantined in Southern California and parts of Arizona, Nevada and Texas.

Responders faced cultural and language barriers. Finding chickens in the backyards of people who don't speak English and may be illegal immigrants is much harder than tracking a disease back to a commercial chicken house, Arza said.

Responders set up six command centers in four states and, wearing protective suits to avoid spreading the disease, went door-to-door diagnosing, vaccinating, quarantining and euthanizing birds. In the end, the outbreak was far less economically damaging than it could have been because overseas markets saw that it was under control, he said.